May 15, 2002
Graffiti amidst the rubble of Jenin Camp: “Live Free Or Die”; “Give me liberty or give me death.”
Today is the day Palestinians mark Al-Nakbe (the Catastrophe), the founding of the State of Israel, which led to their subsequent exile and/or humiliation. Rallies and speeches were planned. Along with Israeli incursions last night into four different places in the West Bank, we were anxious - not for ourselves, but for the fact that we expected visitors today.
Sign outside of a child care center in Jenin Camp, with bullet holes.
A few ex-pat friends of ours living in the Galilee came this morning. The plan was for them to come to the Jalame checkpoint where we would meet them in a taxi to take them back to Zababdeh for quick look around before heading off to Jenin Camp so they could see the scene "with their own eyes". They arrived a little after 9:00. They arrived in Zababdeh a little after 10:00 (taking the circuitous tractor roads - two of our guests, who spent six years in Kenya, said they felt more at home in the West Bank than in Israel), visited Abuna Aktham at the Latin School, then headed off to Jenin Camp, arriving around 11:00. A trip that would've taken fifteen minutes a few months ago (from Jalame to Jenin) now takes closer to two hours. Marthame went with them along with our friend from the Melkite community.
A woman sits amidst the rubble of her home in Jenin Camp.
It was the first time either of us had been since we went with students from the Arab-American University of Jenin. Someone has been adding to the graffiti on the ruins, adding slogans like "Live Free or Die", "Give me librty [sic] or give me death," or "We won't forgive, we won't forget" (reminiscent of Elie Wiesel's sentiment). They didn't have long, but were able to get a sense of the breadth of destruction. What's most striking is how much more work is still to be done - a couple of dump trucks and a bulldozer or two were active, but the destruction remains pretty overwhelming. People whose houses were destroyed are coming back during the day from wherever they're sleeping to sift and dig a little and to just stare at it all - or so it seemed to us.
Our friends headed back to the Galilee, having spent most of the day in the car, but having seen a bit of what's here - they promised to return. Another friend was planning to come from Jerusalem, as he had done a few months back - last time he was turned back at the Hamra checkpoint. This time, believe it or not, he actually made it - they were turned back from one checkpoint, but made it through another one. We were able to take him around to visit some friends and to see the village. He'll stay with us a few days - at least, that's the plan.
We're also hosting one of the University's professors who has returned here for a week to help get the Business School up and running. Just a long day of playing host - something we haven't gotten to do much of since we've been here, but something we thoroughly enjoy. Tomorrow will bring more of that, n'sha'allah, as another group is hoping to come on a Christian solidarity visit to Zababdeh. We hope that they arrive without event, as our guests arrived today.